pellet making

[srosefx]

Hi all

I was thinking has anyone ever made thier own pellets?
.22 pellet making with a custom mould would be interesting.
would heavier grains work better in higher ftlb rifles -makes sense!

maybe even electroplate them in copper!!!

just a thought experiment i had.

i may plus it into a ballistics calc and see what comes up.

any experience with this?

simon

[rank1]

Good question and often wandered about this myself.

I suppose it depends on the cost of lead.
If the cost of a tin of 500 RWS Superdomes (for arguments sake) costs roughly the same as a lump of lead needed to make 500 of your own, then I suppose it's just a case of, why bother?

[18 Wheeler]

It used to be possible to buy moulds.

Given the small size of a pellet it is likely that manufactured ones will have tighter tolerances and be more consistent, and hence hopefully accurate, than anything you could produce at home.

That's not to say it's impossible. Perhaps the pellet you made would be the perfect one for your barrel, but it's a longshot .

[srosefx]

i kinda thought along the lines of conventional bullets but .22 with the same high ballistic coefficient, streamlined and long a tapered back and long for-end, with a narrow waist that grips the rifling.
rather than making the tiny shuttlecock lead pellets that seem mostly hollow and spindly, rather than solid and even in weight that i had in mind
i may try some experiments

[18 Wheeler]

Many things have been tried over the years. Including solid bullet shaped projectiles. Due to their weight they need to be driven hard, in .22 they will start to approach the weight of a 22lr bullet (40gn) and so you need to be thinking of high ME's, 60fpe perhaps more.

(Eley wasp Magnum/30gn, JSB Exact Jumbo Heavy /25gn,Ox Nato, amongst others- see link at end of post).

At these ME's it makes sense to use a 22LR unless it's just for curiosity.

Daystate produced some solids for use in their 80fpe AirRanger IIRC.

AT more normal ME's (say less than 40fpe), the heavier pellets still have enough structural intergrity not to deform on firing. The diablo (shuttlecock) shape is a good compromise in terms of retained energy, accuracy and trajectory when fired subsonically.

Hence most high power shooters around the world not restrained by our regs tend to find that good accuracy can be had up to 950fps. Beyond that and your getting into transonic speeds and compressibility effects.

Bullets are "bullet" shaped because they need to go supersonic and remain stable. That's a whole different area of ballistics to airgun projectiles, hence the different shapes.

Have a look at Photosbykev's pellet database. Includes pictures and data, might give you some ideas.

[dirty harry]

would love to hear any ideas on mould making as ive always wanted to cast my own pellets, a company called lem used to make some years ago but no one makes any now, its a shame in my opinion, yes pellets are relativly cheap but theres an art to casting pellets and i think airgunners should learn it, not to make all there pellets as moulds arnt realy cost effective but just to learn the art incase you ever need it.

[solofx]

would love to hear any ideas on mould making as ive always wanted to cast my own pellets, a company called lem used to make some years ago but no one makes any now, its a shame in my opinion, yes pellets are relativly cheap but theres an art to casting pellets and i think airgunners should learn it, not to make all there pellets as moulds arnt realy cost effective but just to learn the art incase you ever need it.

the cost of a mould would be out of range of your average joe . If a club with some money to spare could find a 2 nd hand one, it could be well worth it.

[keithomas]

ive always fancied this idea of swaging for my toys. i wanted to do it in the .25 caliber. the thing that puts me off it the initial out lay , and the fact i dont think any ones done it yet. ive searched and searched for some one whos done it to write it up but nothing. if their was quite a bit of good write up on it it it might be worth doing.

What sort of weights did you want to make?

[zgaja]

would love to hear any ideas on mould making as ive always wanted to cast my own pellets, a company called lem used to make some years ago but no one makes any now, its a shame in my opinion, yes pellets are relativly cheap but theres an art to casting pellets and i think airgunners should learn it, not to make all there pellets as moulds arnt realy cost effective but just to learn the art incase you ever need it.

You cant make an good pellets with casting,to make good pellets(all the same and same weight) in quantitys you need to make them by pressing.You can cast them but you will never have the 2 same pellets,neither by weight neither by quality because they are too small for casting.Sory for my bad english.Regards zgaja

[merlynsfire]

That would then beg the question, can I get a home pellet rolling kit instead?

[merlynsfire]

opps, pressing even

[DCL_dave]

Not quite in the same league as H&N, JSB, etc,...but take a look at this thread

http://www.airgunbbs.com/showthread....9-pellet-sizer...

[cooksey13]

i did find an american company that made a mould for them just cant remeber what i googled to find it

[asp383]

i remember back in the '90s, airgunner/airgun world used to run an advert for a hand held pellet press ... looked a bit like an odd pop rivet gun from memory.

no idea how good the pellets were it made though.

straight up lead is too soft for air rifles, so need other materials to make it a bit harder, otherwise plain lead could just compress & get stuck in the barrel.

the other thing would be putting th lead through rollers & trying to ensure the thickness is uniform, or again, you could well suffer from different weights that would effect accuracy & trajectory

[notlob]

ahhh don't ya just love the smell of fresh lead in the morning ... probably got dropped on H&S grounds